Most of these recordings were made in 1944‑54, now assiduously quarried for forgotten treasures by collectors whose predecessors considered it a period too sullied by the light of common day to be of interest. Stylistically it was a time of attention to the score, no nonsense and above all no sentimentality. Rubato (or “playing about with the time”) was discouraged, portamento (“sliding and scooping”) forbidden. Impersonality was a virtue, recommended as such by Mr Eliot himself. The Cello Concerto is probably strengthened by these disciplines and Anthony Pini plays it (as does Alfredo Campoli the Violin Concerto) with a warmth of tone that carries quite sufficient emotional force. But this was also a period of change in the techniques of recording, and here we find the very qualities regarded as most progressive (notably Decca’s “ffrr”) a severe liability. The EMI branches, His Master’s Voice and Columbia, were rather mocked as fuddy-duddies who failed to move with the times; but they produced recordings such as the Second Symphony and Falstaff under Boult which, as sound, are perfectly enjoyable today, whereas Decca’s orchestral violins (as in the concertos) sound like the rattling of a tin box half-full of rusty nails.

The three recordings from 1928 have period interest of a different kind. The Royal Choral Society, recorded in the Albert Hall, favour, especially among the men, the plodding, syllabic style that I can just recall from my youth as a standard practice. The LSO under Albert Coates goes great guns on Handel and paints Bach all the colours of the rainbow: Elgar’s arrangements of course are responsible but they in turn partly reflect contemporary taste.

The list of performers in itself guarantees a high standard of performance. To those already mentioned must be added Richard Lewis whose Gerontius impresses afresh, though it does seem a shame that he should be cut off in mid-sentence within minutes of his last gasp, hardly befitting the lofty talk of “visions”. And I should like to see the expressions of Sir Adrian, Sir Malcolm et al on finding themselves appointed “visionaries”.